Saturday, May 28, 2016

It's date night.A wise man once said "Some people want to fill the world with silly loves songs. What's wrong with that?" Good question says I - so here are 10 of them. Of course of the 10 half may not make the same list next month but who cares. Sit back, relax and enjoy. They are in no particular order.This one includes some of my favorite lyrics - Terry Kirkman knows his way around a love song

This one was a fave even before I became good friends with the man that wrote it - Ron RyanFrom Gord's Gold - one of the first 3 albums I bought when I got my first decent stereo system - more a classic breakup than love songI wrestled in high school - this song is from a great HS wrestling/coming of age movie called Vision Quest -

Great song, great performance - Joe CockerTemptations -

I saw Jackie Wilson in a Tahoe lounge show - there was no better act headlining anywhere that weekend

Thursday, May 26, 2016

I Always Wondered Why - this weeks LBC topic leapt from the fertile mind of Lin over in Deutschland.

I Always Wondered Why:

is there air? intelligent conversation is so rare?civil discourse is rapidly disappearingscotch is an acquired taste - if it sucks don't keep drinking it - oops too latethings that taste really good are usually bad for youso many pictures of Jesus are so clearly inaccuratenot simply let Texas secedeit took my beloved los Tiburones 25 years to make the finalsdoes a curveball curvedon't people say what they mean and mean what they sayis there still a charade about amateur athletes and the Olympicsevery other culture in the world has better bread than the USADo Fools Fall in LoveCan't We Be Friends

I suppose the list could go on but what the heck - I still need to check on my LBC mates.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

If it's Friday it must be LBC day. This week's topic was suggested by Lin. You Know You're a Foreigner When......

the football being talked about uses a round ball

the holidays celebrated are different than yours

you constantly get asked for your passport

its hard to find a hamburger- even a bad one

eating with your fingers is the norm -regardless what is on the plate

the movies in the theaters come from Bollywood

cricket is more popular than baseball

you are an immigrant

you are a yank and find all of the toilet paper sucks

the bartender stares blankly when you order a Coors

gas isn't sold by the gallon

you spell color and favorite without the "u" everyone else uses

you are one of these guys ---->

David Hasselhoff is a popular entertainer

The Hoover is in a cupboard on the first-floor landing.

you can only order beer or ask where the bathroom is wherever you are

you automatically want to drive on the wrong side of the road

your accent is different from everyone else

street signs look like this

Now if you live in the USA these things can apply from state to state. After 20 plus years in Texas I can unequivocally state that Texas seems like a foreign country. Texans believe in God, Texas, family above all else. I'm not even sure USA makes the top 10.

Occasionally there is a song that is in a foreign language that becomes a huge hit in another country or countries - just such a song makes my all time topp 10 lost whenever I make it up. The other 9 may change but this song is always on the list -

and then there is this -

Even being a foreigner does not stop one from embracing music - I am certain Lin feels the same way.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Its that time again. If its Friday it must be LBC day and this weeks topic - Calamities -was suggested by Ramana - himself in the middle of a home remodel calamity. One must wonder about the timing of the topic - LOL.

Everyone deals with calamities from time to time. The first calamity I can recall was Calamity Jane - no surprise since - like most men my age - I was a huge cowboy fan as a kid and Calamity Jane was a legend.

I must assume my pal Ramana had something else in mind when he suggested this weeks topic though. The traditional type of calamity might include earthquakes, hurricanes, even wars and other disasters that cause great harm and destruction.

I have lived in California on the edge of a major fault - the Hayward fault - and have been through a 7.1 earthquake referred to as the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. I traveled this collapsed freeway almost daily from the time I got my first driver's license at 16. The next image shows a building in San Francisco that collapsed. I included the image because my good friend Mark Stout was riding his bike and was there when that building collapsed. He was unharmed.

I was driving near our home in Hayward with my son, rolling to a stop sign. Sean and I both assumed we'd gotten a flat tire. Sean jumped out and right back into the van and said it is an earthquake dad. I looked to the right and saw people flying out of the medical offices. Upon returning to our condo, Lynn was spitting nails and cussing as a large bottle of cooking oil and a jar full of rice fell to the floor from atop the fridge. I went into the living room, turned on the TV and this is the image that greeted me -

That is when we knew it was serious.

In 1991 there was the Oakland firestorm. No single image does justice to the destruction and terror of that event.

Move the clock ahead to 2000. We were safely settled in earthquake free Ft Worth Texas. Welcome to tornado alley. On March 28, we went through a major tornado.

That was a barrel of laughs.I got out of the office about 8 minutes before downtown was hit. Sirens went off for another 30 minutes or so after I got home. Our apartment lost power and there was an impromptu wine party on the patio between units at our complex.

Those are the three largest calamities I have been through - unless Lynn's disease could be considered one.The music industry is littered with songs about calamities of many types. Here are a few if you are interested in listening-

That's it for this weeks topic. I could regale you with tales of burnt dinners, dating disasters and such but the Sharks game is about to start and it is the 7th game of a 7-game series to reach the conference championship. Gotta root for my guys - LOL.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Thia weeks topic is pretty well covered by recent topics in April - The Old Days and Aging. I pretty well established the notion that everyone grows old chronologically speaking but not everyone necessarily grows up - maturity has proven elusive for some of us.

Growing old begins at the moment of birth and continues until the moment the lights switch off- death. While on that path of life we hope we grow up - develop the skills and a level of maturity that enables us to deal with the trials and tribulations of life. Everybody has a degree of tsuris in life. How we deal with it determines how successful our lives are. Our culture provides the standards by which we determine the degree of success or failure.

Life is a balancing act of sorts. We need to find the balance between what want and what we need. And thenprocess put it all together, mix it up and make a life. A child is someone who passes through your life, and then disappears into an adult if you get it right.

Growing old is simply a biological process but growing up requires changes of a different nature. Ideas change, friends change, life changes.

And when you reach the end of the line if you have resisted properly, you have grown old but still are still crazy,,,

Then of course there is my personal anthem on the matter - one you've heard from me many times

Hope you enjoyed the short concert - it surely beat the heck outta the written part.